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As a BMW driver who does NOT cut people off or blow the horn, or take up two parking spaces, and as someone who lets people in in traffic, I'm sick of BMW drivers constantly being portrayed as selfish pricks. I've seen some bad drivers in my time and it never has anything to do with the vehicle being driven. I've been cut off by a GMC Acadia, a Ford Bronco, blocked by a Subaru, and have seen an early 90s Camaro take up two parking spaces in a packed parking lot. But for some reason BMW drivers take all the blame, whether it's a Scene from God Bless America, Breaking Bad, or Southpark.

...and these are just the ones I know about. Laugh if you want, but it's led to people giving me sh!t just for owning a 10-year-old 3 series with over 100,000 miles on the odometer. I worked as a middle school teacher last year and every time one of the other teachers saw me pull up in my '02 330ci it was always some condescending remark like "Oh, look who's in the Bimmer! Someone's rolling in the cash, how did you afford that?" You'd have thought I pulled up in a Ferrari Enzo the way they were talking. FFS, I live in Denver where you can't drive a day without seeing a 3-series BMW.

The worst was the resource officer who patrolled the school (not some security guy; real city of Thornton Police Department officer) who said at the end-of-the-year party "Oh, are you the smart@ss fvcker who has that Bimmer? You little sh!t, I should tow that fvcker and drive it around."

My implied question still stands though..........why does the media constantly pick on BMW drivers over drivers of other marquees? It's not like BMW is the only high-end car manufacturer, or the only performance car manufacturer.

Yeah, I know what you mean. As a recent owner of an '06 M3, I was chastised at work when I first pulled in. Some asking in a "smart ass" remark if I have won the lotto. Others were saying that they know who is got the big bonus. These coming from people who are driving new big 4x4 high lift truck and a year old Sequoia. Do they think that my M3 actually cost more than what they paid for theirs ? I'm also wondering what is it about BMW's ?

People are just jealous haters. Its always that way when you have something nice. The general public is a bunch of stupid ignorant morons, honda owners are ricers, BMW owners are assholes, VW owners are hippies, Ford owners are fat and stupid etc. These stereo types are true sometimes but you cant simply generalize someone by something so shallow and ridiculous. And if someone does judge you like that then they are clearly retrded, so who cares what they think?

My implied question still stands though..........why does the media constantly pick on BMW drivers over drivers of other marquees? It's not like BMW is the only high-end car manufacturer, or the only performance car manufacturer.

BMW has been at the top for decades so thats why the media focuses on its owners. But luckily ever since Audis new design language the "poser/cocks" are buying Audis now. So its only a matter of time that the negative attention will turn to them and the BMW scene will be seen as the true german performance enthusiast brand again.

Well excuse me Mr. Rolls Eyes and Bangs Head Against Brick Wall, I was looking for a more in-depth answer than that. Saying "They are losing in life. You are winning" oversimplifies it to the conclusion that we're better because we own BMWs and everyone picks on BMW owners because they are nice cars to own, hence acting out of jealousy.

No. Sorry, that's not a satisfying answer that lends itself to interesting discussion, which is what I was after when I started this thread. So to me, that didn't answer the question. If you feel it's been answered, then you have nothing further to contribute to this discussion, so please leave.

Point being, there's other nice car marquees out there whose owners don't get this negative portrayal in the media like BMW owners do. I can't be the only one who's noticed this.

I was hoping to get some intelligent insight into our society or how it came to be BMW specifically (with some Porsche references I've heard here and there, I admit) that comes with such a stigma attached to it that seems to pervade in society. Again, there's Ferrari, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, and other super high-end automakers that cost more than BMWs that don't get picked on like BMW. Was there something that happened in the 80s with the yuppie image tied to BMW, with Mercedes and Audi somehow avoiding the whole thing? If so, how did that happen?

If anyone is still puzzled at what I'm after, I copied and pasted this from a Mazda Miata forum, of all things:

Quote:

An oversimplified reading would play directly into the now tired, classist, stereotype of scions of "ill-gotten" wealth dumping on everyone else as they streak by at 100 MPH in an M5 ... but that's in reality a fairly rare scenario.

Far more common are heavily-leveraged trendies that drive like jerks because the car is so much more capable than a Yaris or Miata that it seems to the driver like everyone else is cruising around in 2nd gear. Blame the car, blame the driver, but don't try to pass this off on inter-class warfare - that's waaaay too easy, partisan, and IMO counter-productive (and wrong).

If a Miata forum can spark some insight into it, then there's no reason for a BMW forum to brush off any attempt at analysis of this topic and be a d!ck by rolling eyes. Come on, guys; this concerns all of you.

Well excuse me Mr. Rolls Eyes and Bangs Head Against Brick Wall, I was looking for a more in-depth answer than that. Saying "They are losing in life. You are winning" oversimplifies it to the conclusion that we're better because we own BMWs and everyone picks on BMW owners because they are nice cars to own, hence acting out of jealousy.

No. Sorry, that's not a satisfying answer that lends itself to interesting discussion, which is what I was after when I started this thread. So to me, that didn't answer the question. If you feel it's been answered, then you have nothing further to contribute to this discussion, so please leave.

Point being, there's other nice car marquees out there whose owners don't get this negative portrayal in the media like BMW owners do. I can't be the only one who's noticed this.

I was hoping to get some intelligent insight into our society or how it came to be BMW specifically (with some Porsche references I've heard here and there, I admit) that comes with such a stigma attached to it that seems to pervade in society. Again, there's Ferrari, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, and other super high-end automakers that cost more than BMWs that don't get picked on like BMW. Was there something that happened in the 80s with the yuppie image tied to BMW, with Mercedes and Audi somehow avoiding the whole thing? If so, how did that happen?